SC reserves its verdict in SC/ST promotion case

August 31, 2018

Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its verdict as to whether send its 2006 judgment in the case of M. Nagaraj v. Union of India pertaining to the reservation in promotion for the members of the Schedule Castes and Schedule Tribes community in government jobs to a larger bench.

The Apex Court’s five-judge Constitution bench constituting CJI Deepak Misra, Justice Kurian Joseph, Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Indu Malhotra were examining whether its 12-year-old verdict that had dealt with the issue of providing reservation in promotion to SC and ST categories in government job promotions is right or wrong.

Attorney General K K Venugopal representing the Union of India had earlier argued before the Apex Court that the SC/ST employees were presumed to be backward due to more than thousand years of deprivation and must get 22.5 per cent quota in promotions.“I don’t want to comment. But ‘they’ have suffered for more than 1000 years. Atrocities on them happen even today” Mr Venugopal said.

K K Venugopal, the top law lawyer representing the Central government, had submitted to the Apex Court that the Court’s 2006 judgment in Nagaraj case virtually stopping reservation in promotion for SC/ST employees requires reconsideration.